PANTRY

Bread of the Month: Topping a sourdough waffle

[E]ver since I discovered my birthday coincided with National Waffle Day (on Aug. 24, 1869, the first U.S. Patent for the waffle iron was issued), the breakfast treat has been more on my radar. It has almost always been my first choice on the menu at restaurants that served waffles […]

Bread of the Month: Crumbling new life into old cornbread

[T]he first time I made “bread salad” or panzanella, as it’s commonly called, the recipe had me soaking cubes of very stale, sturdy bread in water, wringing those cubes out and mixing them with tomatoes, onions, cucumber, basil and vinaigrette for what turned out to actually be a very delicious […]

Gathering a bouquet of floral flavors

[I]f something has a flower flavor, I’m on it….like a bee. Recently I was exposed to some delightful imported Italian sodas flavored with, of all things, elderflower! I could not resist. It was a beautiful taste, slightly peachy and as soon as my little fingers could do their walking, I […]

Bread of the Month: Gobbling a strawberry cobbler

[S]ometimes, it’s good to see red. Strawberry red, that is. Spring months usher in that beautiful ruby across California fields and farmers market tables. This year, with all the rain, the berries are big, beautiful and bodacious, and you make room in your life/schedule/oven/fridge for any and all ways to […]

Chomping at a Welsh rarebit

[I]t was long ago when I first ran across a recipe for “Welsh rarebit” or “Welsh rabbit,” as it is sometimes called. As a girl who studied cookbooks, I couldn’t have been that old, but I was certainly intrigued and excited by a melty cheese sauce dish that was named […]

Trusting in a go-to mushroom parmigiana

[I]’ll admit, I’m a little too attached to instructions. My sister and I kid each other about this difference between us — she is more of a “freestyle” cook who invents and improvises (sans measuring spoons and cups), while I refer strictly to a recipe, allowing myself a few adaptations. […]

Bread of the Month: Revering an artist and a Rosca de Reyes

[B]eyond some of her work and her unforgettable image — dark-haired, piercing-eyed, flower-crowned — I didn’t know enough about the Mexican artist and icon Frida Kahlo until the 2002 biopic “Frida,” starring Salma Sayek, in a stirring performance examining her life. That movie, for me, ignited an admiration for the […]